Rochelle Staab

Rochelle Staab, former award-winning Top 40 radio programmer and Warner Bros. Records advertising and marketing executive, blended her fascination with the supernatural and her love for mystery in her Mind for Murder Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime.

Rochelle began writing professionally one phrase at a time creating radio promotions and, years later, advertising campaigns for music albums. She found her author’s voice writing a weekly music sales trend analysis for fellow label executives at 4am every Wednesday morning. Bleary-eyed and in a rush to get the latest news to her colleagues by their first morning cup of coffee, she bypassed business formality and wrote colloquial. Dry statistics came to life with humor and drama. Her creative editorials spread beyond the original four recipients to a following of hundreds. Positive responses to her style built her confidence to enroll in fiction writing classes.

Rochelle left the music industry for a career as an author and the first novel she wrote: WHO DO, VOODOO? became a bestseller. According to Library Journal, “Staab sets her fairly sophisticated blend of the occult in a flashy West Coast locale for great escape reading.

WHO DO VOODOO? garnered Best First Novel nominations for the 2012 Anthony, Agatha, and Eureka! awards, and was a finalist for the Golden Heart®. Her second novel, BRUJA BROUHAHA won the Left Coast Crime 2013 Watson award. Her third Mind for Murder Mystery, HEX ON THE EX, was released in 2013. In 2018, the three books became available in an omnibus edition.

Find Rochelle on her website, or follow her on Twitter @rochellestaab.

Bibliography

  • Mind for Murder Mystery Series
    Who Do, Voodoo? (#1)
    Rochelle Staab
  • Mind for Murder Mystery Series
    Bruja Brouhaha (#2)
    Rochelle Staab
  • Mind for Murder Mystery Series
    Hex on the Ex (#3)
    Rochelle Staab
  • Mind for Murder Mystery Series
    A Mind for Murder (Omnibus)
    Rochelle Staab
     

Reviews

Mind for Murder Mystery Series

Who Do, Voodoo? (#1)
“The first in the Mind for Murder mystery series set in Los Angeles grabs your attention from the start with creepy tarot cards, voodoo priestesses and cursed spell books. A fresh and entertaining premise for a new series that is cleverly plotted and executed.”

RT Book Reviews

“Let Staab’s debut cast a spell over your readers with its spirited pace, likable heroine, and Los Angeles backdrop. This is light, romantic suspense […] Staab sets her fairly sophisticated blend of the occult in a flashy West Coast locale for great escape reading. Fans of Juliet Blackwell and Rebecca M. Hale will get a kick out of this one.”

Library Journal

“Brava! Staab delivers effortless chills that eerily wash over you. leaving you shivering in wicked delight awaiting the sophomore volume […] Staab is an exceptional storyteller.”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Rochelle Staab has created an engaging cast of contemporary characters from voodoo princesses to observant gray panthers for WHO DO, VOODOO and hurled them into a nuanced plot that keeps the reader guessing to the end.”

Examiner.com

“Didn’t need my crystal ball to see into the future of this wonderful debut. A sexy, funny, and engaging whodunit set in Tinsel Town, WHO DO, VOODOO? is a winner.”

Lesley Kagen, NY Times bestselling author of Good Graces

“A spellbinding blend of voodoo and tarot traditions, WHO DO, VOODOO? is a superlative supernatural mystery.”

Cleo Coyle, author of the national bestselling Haunted Bookshop and Coffeehouse Mysteries

“Whoo hoo! Smart, sophisticated and utterly spellbinding. This magical mystery is captivatingly clever, completely charming, and compelling from its irresistible beginning to its unpredictable end. (Who do loves it? I do!)”

Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha, Anthony and Macavity winning author

Hex on the Ex (#3)
“Rochelle Staab has managed to write another smart and sassy mystery with lots of intriguing information on occult practices and symbology […] Ms. Staab delivers a good yarn from a fresh point of view. She gives the reader plenty of suspects, a good story line, and great pacing. Her characters are drawn with warmth and humor. No wonder she was an Agatha Award nominee.”

New York Journal of Books

A Mind for Murder (Omnibus)
“Let Staab’s debut cast a spell over your readers with its spirited pace, likable heroine, and Los Angeles backdrop. This is light, romantic suspense […] Staab sets her fairly sophisticated blend of the occult in a flashy West Coast locale for great escape reading. Fans of Juliet Blackwell and Rebecca M. Hale will get a kick out of this one.”

Library Journal

“The first in the Mind for Murder mystery series set in Los Angeles grabs your attention from the start with creepy tarot cards, voodoo priestesses and cursed spell books. A fresh and entertaining premise for a new series that is cleverly plotted and executed.”

RT Book Reviews

“Rochelle Staab has managed to write another smart and sassy mystery with lots of intriguing information on occult practices and symbology […] Ms. Staab delivers a good yarn from a fresh point of view. She gives the reader plenty of suspects, a good story line, and great pacing. Her characters are drawn with warmth and humor. No wonder she was an Agatha Award nominee.”

New York Journal of Books

“Brava! Staab delivers effortless chills that eerily wash over you. leaving you shivering in wicked delight awaiting the sophomore volume […] Staab is an exceptional storyteller.”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Rochelle Staab has created an engaging cast of contemporary characters from voodoo princesses to observant gray panthers for WHO DO, VOODOO and hurled them into a nuanced plot that keeps the reader guessing to the end.”

Examiner.com

Awards & Accolades

Mind for Murder Mystery Series

Who Do, Voodoo? (#1)
USA

Agatha Award Nominee: 2012 “Best First Novel”

USA

#5 debut Barnes & Noble Mass Market Mystery chart

USA

#13 debut Bookscan Mass Market Mystery chart

USA

Eureka! Nominee: 2012 “Best First Novel”

Bruja Brouhaha (#2)
USA

Winner Watson Award: 2013 “Best Sidekick”

USA

Daphne du Maurier Award Nominee: “Mainstream Mystery/Suspense Novel”